Dogberry is a character from the Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing. He is described by The Nuttall Encyclopædia as a "self-satisfied night constable" with an inflated view of his own importance as the leader of a group of comically bumbling police watchmen.
The role was created for William Kempe, who played comic roles in Shakespeare's theatre company the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Dogberry is notable for his numerous malapropisms, which are also sometimes referred to as "dogberryisms" after him.
In the play
In the play, Dogberry is the chief of the citizen-police in Messina. He is first seen instructing his constables on their duties. He tells them that it's perfectly fine to sleep on duty, and that if they see a thief, they should not touch him, to avoid becoming defiled by association with crime.
During their watch the constables overhear a conversation between two characters, Boraccio and Conrad, one of whom has been part of Don John's plot to discredit Hero. They misunderstand the conversation and arrest the two on the spot for acts of "treason" because they called the Prince's brother Don John a villain.
They are brought before the governor Leonato, who is at a loss to understand Dogberry's nonsensical description of the supposed crimes, but allows Dogberry to examine them. His absurd pseudo-legal rhetoric confuses matters even more, but when the Prince arrives the truth about Don John's plot is revealed as the arrested man confesses. Dogberry is rewarded for his diligence and leaves.
Comic persona
As is usual in Shakespearean comedy, and Renaissance comedy generally, he is a figure of comic incompetence. The humour of Dogberry's character is his frequent use of malapropism, a product of his pretentiousness, as he attempts to use sophisticated terminology with disastrous results. Shakespeare appears to be poking mild fun at the amateur police forces of his day, in which respectable citizens spent a fixed number of nights per year fulfilling an obligation to protect the public peace, a job for which they were, by and large, unqualified. Dogberry's name comes from the fruit of the Common Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea). The tree derived its name from the fact that the berries were considered lowly, and inferior to other edible berries.
Dogberry and his crew, however, are also given a thematic function, for it is they who (accidentally) uncover the plot of Don John and begin the process of restoration that leads to the play's happy conclusion. In that sense, Dogberry's comic ineptitude is made to serve the sense of a providential force overseeing the fortunate restoration of social and emotional order.
In addition to frequent malapropism, Dogberry provides the list of charges as a numbered list out of order comprising redundant items:
and, in trying to make sure that the criminals' insulting of him is recorded in the evidence against them, repeatedly insists that it be written down that "[he is] an ass."
Elizabethan law enforcement
According to historian John W. Draper, Dogberry's behaviour as constable is an exaggeration of genuine problems with the amateur policing system at the time, in which sleeping during the night-watch was common, and watchmen often tried to avoid confronting criminals.
Since the office of constable was supposed to circulate among the commonality, everyone must have known what his duties were at least supposed to be, and so everyone could understand Shakespeare's travesty; and, since honest fellows who quaffed late at the taverns were likely to run afoul of him on the way home, his powers and his procedure were as widely understood as those of our modern state police upon the highways. Indeed, the Queen's own jester, Tarleton, was twice taken into custody for being on the streets after ten, and had to rely on his wit to save himself from jail.
Though the play is nominally set in Sicily, Dogberry's watch appear to be acting under English law of the period, according to which loiterers at night could be arrested under the catch-all charge of vagrancy. Indeed, that would be the legal basis for arresting Boraccio and Conrad: "Though they do not say so, they were in reality arresting the men as vagrants according to Dogberry's injunction".
Notable performers
Dogberry was almost certainly created to be performed by William Kempe, as the names "Kemp" and "Kem" are sometimes accidentally substituted for the character-name in the published version of the play.
In a noted 1976 RSC production set in India during the British Raj, John Woodvine played Dogberry "as a member of the local constabulary with a Peter Sellers Indian accent". Christopher Benjamin alternated in the role with Terry Woods in Terry Hands' 1982 production for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Dogberry was played by Michael Keaton in Kenneth Branagh's 1993 film adaptation, and has been played on television by Michael Elphick, Frank Finlay and Barnard Hughes. He was played by Nathan Fillion in Joss Whedon's 2012 film version.
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